That's Ezra Klein, pictured above. Klein is an American political commentator and journalist. He writes opinion columns for The New York Times and is the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. The link I have just provided will get you to a video version of a column by Klein that appeared in the February 16, 2025, edition of the newspaper. You can also review the text by using that same link. Let me, however, provide my standard paywall disclaimer. Since I subscribe to The Times, I had no problem accessing everything online. Your experience may differ!
In his article and podcast, Klein focuses a good bit of attention on his argument that Republican Party Members of Congress are now performing as "Non-Player Characters" (or "NPCs"), and that this is their current role in our contemporary politics. Not being personally familiar with online "gaming," this analogy was not one that "grabbed" me, immediately, but I do understand his point.
Klein's point is that individual Members of Congress have, typically, been individual "players" in the politics of our nation. Now, he asserts, only "Party leaders" have any actual "agency." Members of Congress are "characters," alright, notable figures who can and do move through the "game of politics," but they cannot execute any plays themselves.
As I say, online gamers can probably really relate to what a significant difference there is between a "real" player, and one of these NPCs. If it is possible for you to access the article and the podcast, I encourage you to do that. Here, however, is the specific statement in Klein's presentation I want to highlight, and upon which I want to comment:
Trump is impounding money that Congress has appropriated, in clear defiance of that impoundment law. He is trying to erase agencies that Congress created. And while the courts are standing in his way, Congress is letting him do it. Congress is not fighting to stop the destruction of U.S.A.I.D., even though its current structure was created by a bill passed by a Republican-controlled House and Senate in 1998.
It’s astonishing. Republicans in Congress could demand that Trump cut them in. They won the election, too. It is their job to write these bills.
Agreement with Trump’s policy aims need not mean agreement with his power grab. But the most powerful branch of government — the branch with the power to check the others [by which Klein means the Congress, the "legislative" branch] — is supine. It is not that it can’t act to protect its power. It’s that it will not act to protect its power. This is a nonplayer Congress.
Our entire system of government, as outlined in the Constitution, has been set up so that there is a very real, and virtually all-pervasive "separation of powers." That is what provides us with an effective impediment to autocratic or totalitarian control. This separation of powers is not just between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, either. The Constitution, essentially, makes a "division" or "separation" of powers most effective within the legislative branch itself - and the legislative branch, per Article I of the Constitution, is definitely the most important and most powerful of the three branches.
Because each state, and each separate "district" within each state, is going to have different demographics, and different political priorities, Congress is inherently in perpetual opposition to itself, with that opposition located, inherently, within the Congress itself. For action to occur (for laws to be enacted and budgets passed) some very involved "compromises" must occur. That's the system that the Constitution has established.
What is happening now, Klein says, is that political parties, not the Congress itself, is where the real "action" is. And while Klein doesn't specifically call this out, it is pretty clear that money has come to play a supreme role in determining what actions the Congress will take. Elon Musk's influence in the Trump Administration is an obvious example. Musk, the richest person in the world at the moment, is just telling all those elected officials what he is going to do, and they all stand back and watch. They let him do what he wants to, as though the Congress isn't supposed to be giving the orders.
Analysis helps our understanding. However, it would be a mistake to assume that the analysis Klein presents, and that I have summarized above, defines any inevitable "reality." While our system of democratic self-government is being severely challenged at the moment, it is not inevitable that our system will henceforth be autocratic and totalitarian, and ruled by money, and money alone.
Not too long ago, in a blog posting I titled, "A Solution For Schumer," I outlined a rudimentary set of political proposals. Here they are again, with my summarizing statement:
- RAISE taxes on persons whose personal wealth exceeds $100,000,000.
- Set tax rates to balance the federal budget.
- Include in the federal budget money to provide "free" health care for all.
- Include in the federal budget money to provide free college education.
- Include new home construction with resale restrictions.
- Include job opportunities for all (like in the WPA).
- Include other similar and "positive" programs.
This would be a contemporary version of the "New Deal," and would be explicitly based on the idea that the wealthiest country in the history of the world can, and should, be sure that those with the wherewithal to contribute, will do so. Elon Musk, as the wealthiest person in the world, would definitely be included in those from whom much would be asked. Note: Musk is, quite obviously, someone to whom much as been given.
Neither of our current political parties is going to advance this kind of program, as our parties are currently structured. So, let's start a discussion, nationwide, and make sure that there are hundreds of individual candidates that run in our next Congressional elections, saying that they will be working for these policies.
In other words, to utilize Klein's characterization, lets get some political candidates to stop being NPCs, and (in the words of President John F. Kennedy, the first president I really knew anyhing about) "get this country moving again."
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